


hoarse

by theredhoodie



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Kiss, kiss prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 10:31:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theredhoodie/pseuds/theredhoodie
Summary: The cryo pods popped open and they both knew that it wouldn’t take much time for the prisoners to open the door and swarm the ship. They were two against an army. They ran and, like second nature, Murphy made sure that Raven kept up with him because he’d be damned if he’d let her be left behind.AU of 4x05





	hoarse

**Author's Note:**

> So this is one of the prompts I posted to write fics for the holidays, and it kind of got out of hand and ended up longer than expected. Was thinking of adding another section (or multiple) to it that continues in the vein of AU scenes throughout the season. Let me know if you'd want to see more!

The cryo pods popped open and they both knew that it wouldn’t take much time for the prisoners to open the door and swarm the ship. They were two against an army. They ran and, like second nature, Murphy made sure that Raven kept up with him because he’d be damned if he’d let her be left behind. The Murphy of seven years ago definitely would have thrown anyone under the bus to save his ass, but not now, not _Raven._

Shoes skidded across the cold, hard floor as they stumbled into the bridge. Murphy slammed his hand down on the button to close the door and Raven limped to the control panel to try to figure out how to lock it all down. There was nothing to be done about the risen prisoners, no way to take them out without also taking the two of them down too.

Raven thought of that; she thought of cutting life support, but they hadn’t explored enough to know if there were suits and oxygen tanks on board and they didn’t have the time to check.

“Dammit,” she exclaimed, slamming her hand down. She could lock the door to the bridge, but if just one of the prisoners knew the right code, they could input it from the corridor’s side and she wouldn’t be able to keep them out. “How much time do we have?”

Murphy, halfway to Raven’s side, spun around and peered out the small window in the door. “Not long. A minute or two.” Tearing himself away, he hovered beside Raven as she leaned over the controls and worked her digital magic.

“There’s nothing I can do from here,” she said finally, fear creeping up the back of her throat. “If we cut life support…”

“What?” Murphy recognized the look on her face as something clicked in her head, emphasized by how her fingers suddenly began moving in a flurry of movement. A bang against the bridge door caught his attention. The first prisoner who woke up went instantly into kill-mode and Murphy wasn’t looking forward to facing a whole hoard. His odds of survival were too low for his liking.

“If I can just….if I can isolate the bridge, I can cut the system in the rest of the ship and hopefully…” She paused and gnawed on her bottom lip, undisturbed by the muffled yells and bangs from the prisoners.

“Hopefully?” _The end_ crept into his head. This could be it. Six years in space and instead of dying with solid land under his feet and the sun on his face he was going to bite it on an ancient mining ship, torn to bits by psychotic murderers and rapists and who the fuck knew what else.

“I don’t know this ship as well as the Ring,” Raven confessed, though her voice stayed strong and confident. She was forever positive that she could find a solution to everything, even if she hadn’t been able to find a way to Earth in the past six years. It dulled her ability to believe in herself, but now that lives were on the line, she was back to blissful confidence.

“So our chances of surviving are what? Fifty-fifty?”

Raven shrugged as someone outside the door barked in a commanding voice. If whoever that was knew the code to get inside, they’d be done for. “If it doesn’t work, it’s a quiet death where we fall asleep and never wake up or…whatever those guys have in mind.”

As two people who had been mercilessly tortured on multiple occasions, they weren’t looking forward to going through that again.

“Okay,” Murphy nodded. Simple as that. He wasn’t here for himself or for Emori, he was here for Raven. “I trust you.”

Surprised, Raven looked over at him. As much as he’d said some stupid shit lately, he was still here, owning up to his decision to stay. It was entirely unrealistic that John Murphy would take responsibility for anything, always pawning off consequences of his actions on other people, but this time, she believed it. “If we keep the life support off too short of a time, they’ll still be conscious. If we leave it off too long, they’ll…” She shifted her eyes away from his and to the screen to whisper out the last word, “die.”

His hand fell on top of hers. “I’ll do it.”

“Murphy…”

“I said I would. Just tell me what to do. And if we die…you can blame me,” he tried to joke, though the brief smiles on both of their faces were small and forced.

The system was older than that on the Ark, but Raven had done all the hard work already. “Push this,” she pointed to a button that would be the number 2 if it hadn’t been smudged off, “and then this.” A larger rectangular button on the right side.

“Just like that?”

She nodded, clenching her hand into a fist beneath his warm palm. If these were going to be her last few minutes alive, she wanted them to pause so she could enjoy the last few minutes of human sensory stimulation. Warm hands and heavy breathing from the run and the indescribable feeling of being next to another living human being.

But they didn’t have time. There was a hiss as the bridge door threatened to open. If it opened, they’d be screwed.

“Now!” Raven squeaked and Murphy pressed the buttons. Alarms sounded, lights and sounds, warning of the loss of life support systems.

There was nothing to do now. Either it worked or it didn’t. With a sigh, Raven sat on the floor, resting her back against the support for the control panel, eyes turned to the door which thankfully stayed closed. Murphy slid down next to her.

“That should have shut off the systems and vented oxygen out of an airlock,” she said, hoping explaining things would dissipate her worry that she’d miscalculated something. “We should be safe in here as long as the seal on the door wasn’t broken.”

“And if it was?”

“Oxygen will slowly leak out of the room. We should look for oxygen tanks and space suits just in case.”

Murphy heaved himself to his feet. “I’ll look.”

She didn’t complain or suggest she look with him. The running earlier had done a number on her leg. She was stronger than before, her muscles kept in shape by training with Echo, but that wouldn’t repair her leg, no matter how much she wanted it to. Just one day with no pain would be a blessing.

She kept her eyes on the door and glanced at Murphy’s form as he searched along the walls for anything that could help. He returned with one long and thin can of oxygen. He handed it to her before settling down next to her once again. “It has a valve but I couldn’t find any mouthpieces.”

“If we need to, we can let some out but it won’t buy us much time.” Raven shivered as the air got cooler. She set aside the oxygen canister.

“How do we turn the systems back on?” Murphy asked after a long silence passed. They both had their arms wrapped around themselves, trying to hold in any heat they could. “ _Can_ we turn it back on?”

Raven nodded and slowly stood, her leg brace stiff. She sat in the low chair and Murphy scooted over to stay close. Neither of them were putting off much body heat, but it was the thought that counted. “It should be um…” She frowned as her vision blurred for a moment. Okay, not a good sign, but she shook her head anyway and focused. Her hands moved across the freezing keypad. She waited for the red alarm sections of the screen to go green. “It should be easy.” 

She stayed quiet for a little while longer. “Actually it should have restarted by now,” she said in a whisper.

Murphy tilted his head back and raised his eyebrows. “Great,” he drawled in that specific tone of his.

Raven frowned. “I set it to stay off for a certain amount of time before rebooting but it’s not doing it.” She used what little strength she had and angrily kicked the underside of the control panel, the vibrations felt by Murphy. “How are you feeling?”

“Cold. Tired. Not the worst way to go,” he murmured as Raven left her useless post to sit next to him. Their shoulders pressed together.

“Maybe…maybe it’ll just take a little longer,” Raven said optimistically. All of her previous confidence flooded out of her. Of course she couldn’t get them down to Earth and of course she miscalculated with this system and killed all of them. She squeezed her eyes shut, tears clinging to her eyelashes. “I’m sorry.”

“Raven.” Frost had yet to build around them yet, but everything about them was cold, including his hand against her equally chilled face. 

She leaned into his touch, eyes open and surrounded by crystallizing tears, and found his other hand with both of hers. “Murphy,” she whispered, her voice hoarse as most of her body’s hydration was sucked away by the cold. “Kiss me.” It was a statement and a question and a plea and honestly she didn’t want to die at all but she definitely didn’t want to die feeling so alone.

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen or the cold or maybe with death on the horizon, the prospect of dying without ever kissing Raven was unappealing. It didn’t matter the case, because he did it anyway, closing the small amount of space between their faces. Nothing about them was warm, but Raven’s lips were still soft and Murphys hand on her face was a comfort. 

And while it was tinged in death and sadness and regrets, the kiss was still nice.

There as nothing left to do but wait for the inevitable. Raven kept her hands around Murphy’s and used his shoulder as a pillow. Eventually their breathing slowed even more and their eyes fell shut and it was the end.

Until warmth seeped in, slowly easing life back into Eligius IV like a lazy Sunday morning.


End file.
